Phyllis Dewey
Director of Counseling, Hilbert College

By Nicole Plucinski

“I love what I do, I never dread a moment of going to work.  Each day is different.”

Phyllis Dewey initially went to business school and worked for about ten years in the real estate industry, buying and selling houses.

But she always had an interest in psychology, and one day, decided to pursue it.

“I woke up on my birthday, got dressed, and went directly to Erie Community College and registered to pursue a degree in Counselor Education.”

On her new career path, she completed her associate degree at Erie Community College. Then, she received a bachelor degree  at SUNY Fredonia, and completed her master’s degree right here on Hilbert’s campus, through St. Bonaventure.  She was asked at her master’s graduation to be the first grad student speaker at St. Bonaventure.  After completing her schooling, she had heard that the current counselor at Hilbert was retiring and that they would soon be looking for a replacement.  She was hired for the position of counselor right away.

She says that working with students is the best part of her job, and she keeps in touch with many former students.

Dewey also has a private counseling practice, which she opened in 2003.

She enjoys crocheting in her free time, and even had a side business called The Knotty Ladybug — a reference to the “knotted” look of crochet, and “Ladybug,” a special name shared with one of her granddaughters. She crochets necklaces, baby booties, blankets, and slippers.

She is a mother to two children, and has four grandchildren.  

“Every mother has an age in which she deals better with, and I have always loved teenagers.  At this age they are becoming individuals.  Coming to Hilbert and working with teenagers felt like a really good fit for me,” she said.

PHOTO CREDIT: Brynn Biesik

On November 9th, the residents of Lackawanna and surrounding towns were evacuated from their homes due to the thick, possibly toxic smoke rolling through the air.

The building that caught on fire used to store recyclable materials. The cause of the fire was unknown.  No one was harmed during the fire, expect for some residents in the area whose homes filled with smoke and soot. Rosalie Constable, a freshman at Hilbert College was one of the residents who was harmed due to the plethora of smoke in her home.

“So what happened that morning was, I evacuated my house with my family and dog. We went to my aunts house for the day, but by that evening my mother called me telling me we were allowed to go back home because it was safe for our neighborhood, and the air wasn’t toxic. After that I went home and the air was so smoky it burned my throat and it hurt to breathe in. It smelled like burnt rubber and some sort of stinky chemical. The next day I woke up with a cough. My cough got worse throughout the day and I wasn’t able to sleep because I was coughing so much. By Friday I was extremely sleep deprived, and my cough was terrible. There was dark mucus coming up with my cough. My boss sent me home from work insisting I should go to the doctor. Saturday I went to the doctor I told her it hurt to breathe, she listened to my lungs and prescribed me an inhaler. I used it every four hours for four days, it wasn’t doing anything. I couldn’t sleep because I could not stop coughing, and I couldn’t breathe right. So Wednesday I went back to the doctor, it’s been one week since the fire. She sent me for a chest X-ray. My first class wasn’t until 11, so I managed to do all this in the morning. After my X-ray they said my doctor would call my home phone with the results in a few hours. I went to class in the mean time and managed to give a speech while gasping for air and coughing uncontrollably. My professor seemed to understand. After my last class, I went home to get ready for work. When I got home there was a message on the phone from my doctor, the X-rays showed pneumonia. I had to skip all my classes for the rest of the week and I had to call off from work for the whole weekend. They said I can go back to school and work once they check the X-rays and see that pneumonia has cleared up.”

On November 1 the communications career expo was held in West Herr Atrium. The opportunities offered were endless. This expo was not limited to the digital media and communication students. There were tables that had information from writing, advertising, marketing, radio, t.v., film and even sports marketing/advertising.

One of the tables at the expo was for dPost. dPost is a post production/editorial company. This company offers internships, but it is recommended to start off as a volunteer production assistant. This gives you the opportunity to gain experience and add to your portfolio. Throughout this expo one thing was deemed most important, connections. Constantly make connections.

I had the opportunity to interview, Shannon Silva a producer and production coordinator for dPost. Silva found her way to becoming a production coordinator due to her previous career as an event planner. Shannon was an event planner for 10 years. Being an event planner helped her gain tremendous interview skills and reliable client relations. When Silva first started at dPost she was a studio manager. Her day was spent assisting the editor with their needed assets.

Silva also stressed the importance of networking. “Networking is key, it’s about who you know”. Her advice to anyone interested in the field is, “Join clubs, volunteer and take internships. Put yourself out there and take every opportunity handed to you.”

A first year DMaC (Digital Media and Communication) student, Justin Zelli loved the career fair. The field he is interested in is Film. Working in the film industry caught his eye when he took a film course in high school. Justin enjoyed the speaker, Tom Wills who opened up the career fair by talking about his experience in the film industry after graduating from Hilbert College. Justin is excited to learn more while he is attending Hilbert, and he can’t wait to get in to the workforce after he graduates.

By: Dale Zielen

Many of us are voting tonight, but some are unsure of who to vote for still. Some of you can’t stand Trump and/or Clinton, but think those are your only choices. That though is not the case. You can always vote third party. Even if you do not know the candidate, voting third party is the way to go.

People think voting for a third party candidate is just “throwing your vote away”, but it can actually do a lot in the long run. Yes the third party candidate will most likely not win, but that isn’t the point of voting for them. If enough people vote for a third party candidate it brings attention to analyst. It shows that people are rejecting both the Democratic and Republic candidates. After all they look for what we the people want, and if we are voting against both major parties that will bring some attention to them. Another benefit is that if attention is brought to the third party candidates, the winner and loser will both look at what that candidate believes in and will “steal” their ideas to make the people happy. No matter what at the end of the night we will be stuck with either Hillary or Trump, but hopefully all the people that don’t like both of them vote third party, rather than not vote at all.

By: Breyana Laury

Have you been searching for a club but do not know what is right for you? How about trying out Hilbert College’s new Black Student Union Club. The Black Student Union is a club that focuses on celebrating, advocating for and increasing understanding of the heritage and experiences of Black culture. The club provides regular opportunities to discuss current events impacting Black culture locally, nationally and internationally. It also hosts larger campus wide events each semester to celebrate various historical accomplishments by this community, but most importantly the club is open to all students. If you are interested in becoming a member of Hilbert College’s Black Student Union meetings are held every Wednesday in the student lounge (Room 103) in Fran Hall from 2-3pm. At the meeting you will learn more about the club, its purpose, and of course if the club is a right fit for you. Please join us Wednesday November 16, 2016 at 2pm for our next meeting. All are welcomed and hope to see you there. If you have any questions before then please contact Shalimar Duplantis (Founder/President) at sduplantis@hilbert.edu or Ahyana King (Advisor) in Bogel 103B or at 649-7900, ext. 243.

By: Breyana Laury

It is important for voter turnout that local and state voting policies and procedures are public knowledge. Often, voters do not know where, when and how to vote. Public awareness campaigns can encourage voter participation. That is why Monday November 7, 2016 various members of Hilbert College’s Black Student Union sat at a table in front of Bogel 101 from 12:30-3:30pm promoting people to vote in the 2016 Presidential Election. We not only wanted to give  people of the Hilbert College community additional information on the 2016 candidates Hillary Clinton and Donald Trump, but we also wanted to get people active in the process and hopefully lead to more informed voting in the future. If you were able to stop at the table BSU members were giving out I’m with her posters and Trump stickers along with candy. The BSU members appreciate everyone who participated as well as voted in the 2016 Presidential election and hope to see everyone at our next event.

Ryan Crino, an RA at Hilbert, hosted an election night party for the Hilbert students. About 30 students attended, people had their different reasons for coming. The best reason being, “It’s my room, I had to be here.” The event was held in the Katherine apartment and started at 8pm. Cirino had handouts for everyone, listing the four main candidates and explaining all of their positions.

 We started watching the ABC coverage, tallying the electoral votes of the results as they came in. Everyone expected Hillary Clinton to win, it was just a question of when the experts were going to announce it. Cirino did a good job ensuring that there was plentiful food and drink, we had enough on the off chance that election results would go far into the night. The conversation of the room was light, a lot of small talk, no one was really discussing politics for the first part of the coverage. Around 9:30 almost everyone left to go back to their rooms, only five devoted and fixated students remained and we would stick it out until the end.

The race turned out to be closer than what we had originally anticipated, we were still fully expecting Clinton to win even if it was a little closer. We discussed one of the lesser known presidential candidates, Andrew Basiago. (Look him up he’s real.) This man claims that he has time traveled, been to mars and shot at dinosaurs. While obviously not a serious candidate to win, he is definitely interesting and helped us pass some time discussing conspiracy theories.

Then the election took a surprising turn, some key swing states had just closed their polls and Trump was ahead! A democratic strategist then said, “It’s ok, because Florida isn’t important to win, we’re focusing on Colorado, Nevada and New Mexico.” Presumably losing Florida was always a part of their winning strategy. On TV the talk was all about how, “Clinton is only down by a couple points.” Instead the talking points should have pointed out how much Clinton was underperforming and how low the voter turnout was, which always helps republicans get elected. For example, in Wayne County, Michigan in 2012, Obama won by 48% of the vote, Clinton was edging out a 1 point lead there. That is important because she was definitely going to lose in the more rural areas, so she had to win with larger margins in the more heavily populated areas.

Around 10:15 we changed the coverage to the fox news station, they were the most up-to-date with their projections. But after a while the commentators run out of stuff to say and the room found them to be annoying. Most commentators were followed by cynical remarks by Hilbert students. “Why don’t they just play rock, paper, scissors?” An exit poll came out saying that Trump won independents, 48% to 42%. The real surprise of the election was Florida! Not that Trump won this swing state but that they had a smooth election! They seemed to have enough ballots at all of their polling places, many congratulations is in order for the state election board of Florida!

Each swing state going to Trump became less and less of surprise. Trump winning Wisconsin was huge for the Trump campaign, the democratic blue wall had been pierced, Trump was on the verge of victory. Around 11:15 a Canadian immigration website reportedly crashed, presumably some people were not happy about the election results? As the election results were coming to an end the room became more engaged , a heavier use of political humor and puns were utilized to analyze what had just occurred throughout our country. “If Trump can win the presidency with no political experience, I better be able to get a job with my degree!” In the great political upset of modern history a total novice, an outsider, having never been elected to political office, won one of the most powerful and important positions in the world. Around 2:30 Clinton called Trump to concede, we were just waiting for Trump to give his victory speech. We were looking at, against all odds and established rules of politics, the 45th president of the United States, Donald J. Trump.

The room was disappointed that Trump had been elected, but they would not have been overly thrilled about another Clinton presidency either. Some had supported the third party candidates, knowing full well they they wouldn’t win, but they kept their sense of moral and political high mindedness, to them Jill Stein and Garry Johnson would have been better alternatives. People were mostly hoping that Trump would not roll back some of the social progress that had been made, especially for the LGBTQ community, and that Trump would act responsibly and rationally, the big hope is that Trump said and did a lot of his strangeness just to get attention and that he will now act more like a world leader.

LACKAWANNA — The Hilbert College community awoke to thick plumes of black smoke in the sky last Wednesday, coming from a massive fire at a building that was part of the Bethlehem Steel complex on Route Five.

The fire started early Wednesday morning Nov. 9, according to officials and witnesses who live in the neighborhood surrounding the building.

The building was a storage space for what was described as “recyclable materials,” as well as cars and boats.

No cause of the fire has been determined, but officials were still investigating.

“People were in the building at the time but no one is known to have been harmed. There is no official cause to the incident and the arson unit will do their investigation,” said Lackawanna Mayor Geoffrey Szymanski, who was at the scene of the fire last Wednesday, talking with emergency responders and residents who came by to look at the blaze.

Jesse Susi, a resident of Beech Street, a small side street that backs up to the huge structure, reported hearing a loud, explosive bang early Wednesday morning. He said he used to work inside the building several years ago.

“My old job just  burned down, I’ve never seen anything like this before,” he said. Susi lives a block away, upwind from the site, and said that he felt comfortable and safe, despite being so close to the flames.

A helicopter operated by the Erie County Sheriff’s Department hovered over the site and took video images. Route Five was closed in both directions near the site for several days, until demolition crews were able to demolish what was left of the building. News reports said there was a fear that the building would collapse and spill debris onto the roadway.

Last Wednesday, many people stood and watched responders from Lackawanna, Buffalo, and several other nearby agencies blast the fire with water cannons.

There was some concern raised by Szymanski and other officials about air quality, from the smoke plume. Szymanski told a local TV station that Lackawanna would be purchasing its own air monitoring equipment to check for harmful contamination in the coming weeks.

We interview Brynn Canttan to discuss her service in the military.

By Kylie Wooliver

After graduating from Hilbert, Nicole Maiorana assists in the social, psychological, and academic growth of children.
A 2016 Hilbert graduate with a degree in Human Services, Majorana is a rehabilitation specialist at Northwest Community Mental Health in Buffalo.
The Orchard Park High School graduate she says she chose Hilbert College for its small class sizes. In addition, Hilbert’s location was convenient for her since it is close to home. She was drawn to Hilbert’s Human Services program. However, she believes without graduate school, there isn’t much forward mobility in her field. “The chances of financial growth are very slim,” she says.
She said she plans on getting a graduate degree in the next few years.
Her job at Northwest is her first salaried position in the mental health field, and her first day on the job was Nov. 21. She’s ready to work and go to graduate school so, she said, she can “move up the career ladder.”
She says that the best advice she received about her future was from her parents. They said, “to make sure I’m the most marketable person in the room.” With her master’s degree, along with her personal skills and traits, she hopes to be an asset to the counseling field. “My parents have encouraged and supported me throughout my academic career. I am very thankful for their guidance,” she said. “I am looking forward to the future and learning from an assortment of professionals, along the way.”